ST. PETERSBURG, November 26 (RAPSI) – Kyrgyz native Atabek Rustamov has been sentenced to 7 years in penal colony for recruiting his compatriots to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations banned in Russia, RAPSI has learnt in the Moscow District Military Court.

Rustamov living in St. Petersburg has been found guilty of propagating radical Islam and recruiting new members to the terrorist groups for their further transfer to Syria.

According to case papers, in August 2016, Kyrgyz natives Atabek and Azizbek Rustamovs along with Uula Islambek Oibek and Feruza Inakov attempted to recruit the defendants to the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations banned in Russia through WhatsApp messenger.

The chats contained videos and messages propagating radical Islam and calling for using force against non-Islamic people, committing terrorist attacks and participating in warfare on the side of the Islamic State militants. The accused persons were being recruited for over a year but did not report this to the police.

In August, the Moscow District Military Court sentenced Oibek, Inakov and Azizbek Rustamov to real prison terms for terrorist recruitment.

Kyrgyzstan native Iskander Nurbayev and three natives of Kazakhstan, who have Russian citizenship, Shukhrat Satymbayev, Aizhigit Aitmatov and Bakhodir Madrakhimov have been fined but freed from punishment as they were held in detention for a long time. They have been found guilty of failure to report to the police that they had been subjected to recruitment to the terrorist organizations.